By Judy Ogutu

International Criminal Court (ICC) presiding Judge, Justice Ekaterina Trendafilova has ordered the lawyer appearing for radio journalist, Joshua arap Sang’ to submit statements by one of the defence witnesses, Henry Kiprono Murei.

Mr Murei is a witness for Eldoret North MP, William Ruto. The Judge gave the directive after the witness informed the court he had drafted one statement and the other was drafted by a lawyer.

"We order that Mr Katwa supplies all the written and signed statements of the witness to the court," Justice Trendafilova said.

Katwa asked the court to give him time to get the statements from Nairobi, saying Murei was interviewed by a lawyer who has since been appointed a judge in Kenya.

The judge also directed the witness not to write or sign any statements prepared by anyone else.

"At this moment, the chamber requests you not to make any written statements, sign any written statement prepared by someone else in this case where you appear as a witness," the judge said.

Murei told the court how he became Ruto’s witness at the ICC.

Prosecutor: How did you get here today, who contacted you, if you do not have Ruto’s number, how was the connection made?

Witness: When I learnt that someone was needed to testify concerning distribution of weapons, it was then that I took a stand. No weapon was distributed and no person was killed.

Prosecutor: How did you learn someone was needed?

Witness: I got the piece of news from Ruto’s counsel.

Prosecutor: Who was that?

Witness: His name is Mr Katwa

Prosecutor: How did you receive this information from Mr Katwa?

Witness: The information was confirmed by the Government, afterwards. Katwa also learnt from committee of six people. On that committee, there were people from various committees among them Kalenjin and Kikuyu.

Prosecutor: Did contact occur in person?

Witness: Yes. That is how I met Katwa when he came to our offices.

Prosecutor: When was that?

Witness: I cannot remember, but it was the beginning of this year.

Prosecutor: What did he tell you?

Witness: He wanted to know how we had organised our work in Sangoi, how we took people to various areas, and how we got those people back to their homes. He wanted us to handle those statements in writing, even the Kikuyus did so.

Written statement

Prosecutor: Was it January this year?

Witness: Yes.

Prosecutor: Was that the only time you met him?

Witness: It was the first time. Thereafter, he came a second time. I cannot remember the exact date.

Prosecutor: Can you remember the month?

Witness: I would not like to mislead you, so I will not give you any specific month.

Prosecutor: Sometime between the beginning of this year and today?

Witness: It was not at the beginning or now, but somewhere in between.

Prosecutor: Did you provide a statement in writing?

Witness: Yes. There is a statement I drafted myself and there is another one he produced.

Prosecutor: Did you sign those statements?

Witness: That is indeed right.

Prosecutor: Did you give them to Katwa?

Witness: Yes, I did.

He told the court he wrote the statement based on what he had seen during the post-election violence.

The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber is conducting hearings that will determine whether it will confirm charges brought against six prominent Kenyans for their alleged role in the 2007/2008 post-election violence. More than 1,300 people died and 600,000 were displaced.

The court is first conducting hearings for Sang, Ruto and former Industrialisation Minister Henry Kosgey. Starting September 21, it will conduct hearings for Head of Civil Service, Francis Muthaura, Deputy Prime Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta and Former Commissioner of Police, Major General Hussein Ali.

On Saturday, the witness maintained only four meetings were held at the home of the Eldoret North MP. He said Sang was not in any of those meetings.

Rutio’s home

Prosecutor: Would you not agree that aside from those four meetings other meetings could have been held in Ruto’s home where you were working?

Witness: The meetings, which took place at his house were announced through loudspeaker, if there were other meetings, I do not know.

Further, he said Ruto gave them money for their sector, which was from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) kitty.

CDF money, he told the court, is usually given by Government for use in construction projects such as schools or youth movement projects or those identified as important. Funds are allocated and distributed according to districts.

Witness: The last time I saw Hon Ruto was when he gave us money for our sector. I cannot remember, but I think he did give money for CDF. I cannot remember the date.

Prosecutor: How much money did the sector get?

Witness: Sh30million. It was distributed within his constituency.

Prosecutor: That was Ruto’s contribution, is that right?

Witness: That was money from CDF itself.

It also emerged that he had worked for the MP who paid him Sh10,000 after contracting him to carry stones for the construction of his house.

The court heard that the witness was chairman of the peace committee, a position that he was elected to hold.

Prosecutor: Tell us how you got the position?

Witness: I was elected to that position when we led the Kikuyu to the District officer, we took them back to their place afterwards and I was appointed head of that committee. I am happy to have been chosen for that particular function.